Outgrowing Drake Is the Generation Gap We Didn’t Predict

I was 22 when ‘So Far Gone’ changed music. Now I’m 34, and my life feels different — but Drake hasn’t changed at all

Photo illustration. Sources: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

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I was 22 when Drake’s defining, star-making mixtape So Far Gone hit the internet like a meteor. At 22 years old, swarming Mediafire and Rapidshare links like they were electronics stores on Black Friday morning, looking for the one that still had what I was after. Just 22 years, ringing in Valentine’s Day 2009 in my car, driving around Chicago, listening to So Far Gone. Alone.

I was a year into my career as a music journalist, watching the internet wreaking absolute chaos on the industry. Stars like Wiz Khalifa and B.o.B had already emerged from the new ecosystem, dropping projects online and circumventing the gatekeepers entirely — but we were all still waiting for that one crossover artist for vindication. Someone to prove that the future was online. Someone who could go directly from Datpiff to a household name.

Drake was that messiah, and So Far Gone was that gospel. The album spawned a tour, music videos, Billboard-charting singles. But most importantly, it first…